Page 29 of The Mistletoe Duke

“Yes.” He had no idea why she laughed. “Why did you send Hisdick away? We hadn’t even found the book yet.”

“Don’t you know?”

She stared at him. Blinked. “Know what?”

“How dangerous that is?”

“What?”

Honestly? Did she not know? He raked back his hair. “You can’t just leave a party with a man and go into a deserted room with him.”

“Why ever not?”

“You most certainly cannot kiss him.”

“But there was mistletoe.”

“That doesn’t change anything. You could have been compromised.”

“With Hisdick? What nonsense.”

“It’s not nonsense. Had Lady Jersey, hell, had anyone else come in and seen you kissing Hisdick, you would have been done for.”

Meg put her hands on her hips. Her eyes snapped fire. She was magnificent.

“I did not kiss Hisdick.”

“You were going to.”

“What nonsense.”

“There was mistletoe.” He pointed above his head.

She looked up, then shrugged. “It does not signify.”

“It most certainly does signify.” He had no idea why his anger was rising, but he did have a suspicion that it wasn’t anger at all. It was something more…feral. Something utterly mad.

Without thinking, he yanked her into his arms and took her mouth, covering her, smothering her, tasting that delicious nectar he’d been craving since last night. It was a wild kiss, a devouring kiss, one that shocked him to his core.

Because she kissed him back. Every sort of passion he felt, she gave back.

When it ended, there in the darkened room with no sounds but their ragged breathing, his world was changed.

He knew now, he could never let her go. Knew now that Meg was his.

He leaned back and gored her with a dark, dominant gaze. “I’ve thought about that all day. Wanted that all day,” he said.

She made a show of patting her hair to make sure it was all still in place.

“Well.” Surely his voice didn’t crack. “Don’t you have anything to say?”

“What-what could I say?”

He growled at her. “That you wanted it too.”

To his dismay, she turned away. “It was nice—”

“Nice?” A roar. Fury burned through him, and without thinking, he pulled her back into his arms and kissed her again, making sure, this time, it was a damn sight more than nice.